Why You Shouldn’t Joke Around Too Much at Work
Stop joking around so much at work.
Most of these guys aren’t your friends.
They are just looking for a reason to get offended, so they can report you to HR, and turn a small situation into a big situation.
Don’t undermine how anxious people are nowadays.
They see things that aren’t there.
‘Are you telling me that I can’t loosen up at work?’
That’s not what I’m saying.
Notice what the title says.
Stop joking around so much at work.
Joking around is fine.
But when you veer into the “too much” territory, that’s when you set yourself up for trouble.
The Dreaded HR
In my last job, there was a guy named Juan in my training class who was soft spoken.
A clean-cut guy who seemed humble.
One night, a few of the training class members decided to go out.
Juan got drunk.
For the entire night, Juan kept making fun of the 2 Chinese guys in the group.
He kept calling them racist names.
The next day, word had spread about how drunk Juan had gotten.
The rest of the training class were appalled by his comments.
They wanted to say something.
Ironically, the 2 Chinese kids who were getting made fun of were the most forgiving.
They said:
‘Nah, it’s not a big deal… That’s just Juan being Juan.’
This situation happened around 2017.
If it was 2024, I guarantee Juan would have been reported to HR by an anonymous source.
People are way quicker to snitch nowadays.
The Company Doesn’t Care About You
A company is a business that provides value to a large body of people.
The business has deliverables that it fulfills in order to provide that value.
To fulfill the deliverables, the company hires workers.
The worker is a cog in a system.
There’s nothing wrong with being a cog in a system.
It’s a great way to get a stable paycheck and pay for daily needs.
Just know that a cog can be replaced.
When a screw gets rusty, it causes a creaking sound when I open my cabinet.
Therefore, I get another screw from Home Depot.
I have no personal connection to the screw.
I just need to get my cabinet to stop creaking.
Likewise, business owners just want to make sure their business is providing value.
If they see one screw (worker), creaking (aka offending others), they have no problem going to Home Depot (LinkedIn) and finding another screw…
What Does Joking Around Too Much Look Like?
Here’s a simple framework to follow to avoid getting in trouble at work:
- Avoid sexual jokes.
- Avoid racist jokes.
By avoiding these 2, you build a better judgment for other jokes to avoid.
Slowly, you begin to notice what is appropriate vs inappropriate.
For example, you’ll learn that it’s wise to stay out of office drama.
People know that you are great at doing impressions of others.
They try to coax you into making impressions of your boss.
That’s where you draw the line.
‘Nah! That’s too much. I’m not going to do that.’
By building your judgment in one thing, you begin to build better judgment in other things.
Avoid making sexual & racist jokes, and you’ll develop a better feel for other things to avoid.
Sexual jokes and racist jokes are super risky in the modern climate.
The bigger your company is, the bigger their HR team is.
They take concerns like this more seriously.
The spooky thing about the jokes is that it doesn’t feel like a big deal when you are making them.
But overtime, the person who received the joke begins pondering:
‘You know what? George should not have said that to me during work. That was very unprofessional!’
There was a delayed reaction.
That delayed reaction can cost you your career.
What is a Job Really For?
I’m not saying a person can’t have fun at work.
So much of their life is at the job.
It’s perfectly fine to occasionally joke around, reveal personal details, and say yes to company events.
However, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.
A job is not a playground.
A job is a job.
We go to work to execute certain deliverables.
If you are unclear about what those deliverables are, talk to your manager asap.
‘What do you expect from me in this position?’
All the extra energy you have in your workday should not be spilled over to joking around with others.
All that extra energy should be reinvested back into your position so you can get more money and opportunities.
I believe in socializing and having a good time.
Just avoid being one of those guys who has no clue why they were hired.
When you have too much free time, you begin doing silly things.
As the famous saying goes:
“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
Who is Telling the Truth?
There was once a rising star in my company.
He was about to be the next executive director.
When he was on the verge of getting promoted, suddenly, there were murmurings about how this guy was a racist.
Different people came forward with stories of how this guy was a bad guy.
Soon, the whispers turned into screams, and the company could no longer promote this guy.
He got shadow banned from the company.
A few years later, I heard stories about the guy.
One of the worker’s said:
‘I don’t think he was actually a racist. He was just one of those brash Chicago guys who had no filter. He’d say dumb things to everyone, not just one group of people.’
That didn’t matter though.
His career now had a ceiling because he joked around too much at work.
The only way for him to progress again is to switch companies.
Hopefully, he doesn’t make the same mistake of joking around too much in his new company.
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